Theater review by Raven Snook
A modernized, female-forward reinvention of a 200-year-old protofeminist classic may sound like a bonnet on a bonnet. But Emily Breeze's Are the Bennet Girls Ok?, an irreverent riff on Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice, is a delight. Many of Austen’s plot points are more or less preserved, but the novel’s sense and sensibility are reframed: Using period dress and patriarchal rules but contemporary, profanity-laden dialogue, Breeze’s perceptive version celebrates sisterly, not romantic, love.
The play kicks off with a blazing monologue by Mrs. Bennet (a hilariously high-strung Zuzanna Szadkowski), who is desperate to marry off at least some of her five daughters to save the family from financial ruin. The nubile and obedient Jane (Shayvawn Webster) seems like her best bet, but the blunt and headstrong Lizzie (Elyse Steingold) racks up unexpected proposals. Underage flirt Lydia (Caroline Grogan) is the likeliest to get in trouble; sensitive, botany-loving wallflower Mary (standout Masha Breeze, the playwright's sister) and horse girl Kitty (Violeta Picayo) seem like spinsters in waiting.
Are the Bennet Girls Ok? | Photograph: Courtesy Ari Espay
Though much of the girls’ alternately empathetic and uproarious chatter is sparked by the men in their lives, we encounter those men only rarely. All are played by a single actor, Edoardo Benzoni, who brilliantly delineates each character: four suitors—deer-in-headlights Darcy, awkward Collins, douchey Bingley and dangerous Wickham—plus Mr. Bennet in a deathbed cameo.
But the fierce and flawed women are the ones you fall for in this low-tech, high-energy Bedlam production, buoyantly staged by company artistic director Eric Tucker on a sparse two-level set by John McDermott. Mary's plaintive songs—intentionally awful ditties written by the Breeze sisters—are as heartbreaking as they are funny. Mrs. Bennet's cringey meddling reveals a middle-aged lady who knows what's up. Jane's evolution from dutiful daughterliness to assertive independence is galvanizing; the solipsistic Lizzie’s opposite trajectory, which finds her learning to put familial happiness above her own, is a somehow uplifting downer. The Bennet girls may not always be okay, but the play about them is fabulous.
Are the Bennet Girls Ok? West End Theatre (Off Broadway). By Emily Breeze. Directed by Eric Tucker. With Elyse Steingold, Shayvawn Webster, Caroline Grogan, Masha Breeze, Violeta Picayo, Zuzanna Szadkowski, Edoardo Benzoni. Running time: 2hrs 30mins. One intermission.
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Are the Bennet Girls Ok? | Photograph: Courtesy Ari Espay
